The feeling is entirely mutual, but I don't take these matters quite as seriously as many in here by questioning people's integrity, calling them liars, or insulting their positions on these (admittedly) trivial matters.

I evaluate the efforts of all these manufacturers more fairly than most, lauding them for their successes and criticizing them for their stumbles... as I feel justified in doing given that it's my money I've spent on their wares.

Show me one post from the past couple of weeks where you've had something laudable to say about Apple.

Ballmer is nothing but a fat, greasy, sweaty monkey dancing fool. He's missed the boat on so many levels with Microsloth. No wonder they are a non threat....can't come up with anything original that their customers actually want. Always has to steal other people's thunder and then miserably f*ck it up...

'Non-Threat"... Really?

"According to its earnings report, Microsoft generated $62.48 billion in revenue over the 2009-2010 fiscal year, a 7 percent increase from the year prior, and its highest revenue ever on the books. Not surprisingly, Windows 7 played a major part, driving revenue in Microsofts Windows division up 23 percent from last year to $18.49 billion."

Seems kind of a boring regular sort of article. I've seen about a half dozen over the last month or so that say essentially the same thing.

It also doesn't seem very uncomplimentary to me. Balmer is a colossal fool and any article that doesn't paint him as such is missing the point and being too kind.

I find the criticism related to dividends kind of off also. Almost no tech company *except* for Microsoft gives dividends anymore and most serious players in the market who are on top of things realise that dividends in general are something that just makes no sense anymore. Suggesting that Microsoft (or any company) should give out dividends as some kind of solution seems silly to me. It will just bleed them dry faster and has literally nothing to do with the health or proper operation of a company.

I disagree about the dividends.

Companies like AAPL don't pay dividends because the cash will earn better return for investors if it stays within the company. This allows share price to grow faster without the tax burden to shareholders.

However, when a company has reached the cash cow stage, where rapid growth is unlikely, the only way to provide value to share holders is to release a dividend.

This model functions pretty well in the real world, since less cash is needed to maintain the cow.

Surprising as it might be, MSFT has enjoyed steady growth in EBIDA over the last several years.

Ballmer has done a pretty good job at maintaining the cow, he just needs to figure out how to do something new and successful. True, he has wasted billions on projects that did nothing but harm the image of the company, but he has kept the cow alive and very healthy.

I still think he should go. for MSFT to have a good ten year outlook, they need a "third leg". To do that, they need someone with a bit more vision.

Ballmer is probably a smart guy, but he misses the mark. The 'gadget' is really half the story. Be it the iPod or the iPad, what 'does it' for Apple is the content-delivery schema that supports those devices. MP3 players abound, but only Apple decided that iTunes would be the key. Tablets have been around for awhile, but only Apple decided that the 'App Store' would be the key for the iPad (and for the iPhone). There's a Harvard B-school case study here: Gadgets are of minimal use without the content-delivery infrastructure that is both simple & appealing to use. Case closed.

In the old days, you could get away with protracted development cycles and five versions before your finally caught up to the comparable Apple product (eg Windows 386, Windows 3, Windows 95, Windows 98, and finally Windows 98 SE). Or take the Zune - please. And let's not even talk about WinCE (what an appropriate name). How many years and iterations to come up with Windows Mobile 7 which will be released in THREE MORE MONTHS as an equivalent to iPhone OS 2G. We'll be three full generations behind the iPhone by the time you start selling Windows Mobile 7 devices (if you get there).

And now let's talk about the iPad. Apparently Apple has been developing for the iPad even before the iPhone, so that's a four year gestation period, and you're going to play catch up in 6 months? Better still, you have no grasp of what it is, what it does, and what it can do, much less the unlimited potential it presents in the hands of developers. "Apps" are the key - $2-$20 building blocks that can transform into whatever you need/want it to be. NOT a vehicle for delivering ever growing bloatware with feature lists that would fill a Tolstoy novel. It is not just a "large iPod Touch" you dunce. (By the way, the next time you laugh off an Apple product you will be fired on the spot).

So, now that you've managed to keep our stock in the $20's for years (note that it lags behind APPL by a factor of 10x), get off your dead &$$ and do some thinking and planning not just responding from one Apple &$$ whipping to the next, or our own failed product launches (Windows ME, Vista, Win Mobile, Zune, Kin). Oops, sorry we mentioned the Kin debacle - shortest lived product release in cell phone history. Gee, you really are batting a thousand big guy - aren't you - we bet you're tearing your hair out - oh, sorry, you already did that years ago.

We'll talk again after iOS4 and Android bury Windows Phone 7, and our last remaining friends at Asus and Acer put out subpar Win7 iPad wannabes that sell in the thousands this Christmas (PS - HP, Dell, and even Lenovo have jumped ship on the Windows Slate).

Ballmer is probably a smart guy, but he misses the mark. The 'gadget' is really half the story. Be it the iPod or the iPad, what 'does it' for Apple is the content-delivery schema that supports those devices. MP3 players abound, but only Apple decided that iTunes would be the key. Tablets have been around for awhile, but only Apple decided that the 'App Store' would be the key for the iPad (and for the iPhone). There's a Harvard B-school case study here: Gadgets are of minimal use without the content-delivery infrastructure that is both simple & appealing to use. Case closed.

he misses the mark because as you said it's not about the gadget itself but about the whole ecosystem...leave ballmer to copy, and make garbage software knock offs...he's very good at it and earns microsoft billions...

Companies like AAPL don't pay dividends because the cash will earn better return for investors if it stays within the company. This allows share price to grow faster without the tax burden to shareholders.

However, when a company has reached the cash cow stage, where rapid growth is unlikely, the only way to provide value to share holders is to release a dividend.

This model functions pretty well in the real world, since less cash is needed to maintain the cow.

Surprising as it might be, MSFT has enjoyed steady growth in EBIDA over the last several years.

Ballmer has done a pretty good job at maintaining the cow, he just needs to figure out how to do something new and successful. True, he has wasted billions on projects that did nothing but harm the image of the company, but he has kept the cow alive and very healthy.

I still think he should go. for MSFT to have a good ten year outlook, they need a "third leg". To do that, they need someone with a bit more vision.

Now that is thoughtful, astute and 'contributes' to the discussion! A far cry from calling Balmer, Monkey boy, which to me is juvenile and dismissive. Thanks LTMP

Sorry, but it looks antithetical to the Apple paradigm. Too many wires/cables/pwr bricks not to mention keeping everything charged and updated. Granted, iSync and DropBox help but who wants a room/desk that looks like crap!

I have one iPhone 4G, one iPad, and one MBA, no desktop, no external HD, (ala Time Capsule).

I use DropBox and MobileMe (cloud), no cable modem or router, use ATT 3g and wifi when I'm out and about.

A wireless Brother all-in-one printer/Fax/scanner/copier the odd time I want to print something on a dead tree...usually about once a week. And that's it. Oh, an AppleTV to listen to music while viewing photos on my flat screen TV.

I consider myself an Apple fanboi, but I've given my old iPods to either my daughter or niece. I sell my old software/hardware on craigslist. And sell my iPhones for the price I paid ATT for them and it's a 'wash' to get the latest and greatest iPhone.

Am I missing something? The last thing I want to do with my free time is either read a manual or figure out an electronic device with an arcane interface, i.e., digital picture frames, stand-a-lone GPS units, cameras, cable boxes, etc., etc.

Life is too short and thanks to Apple and a little forethought on my part, I have more free time away from the techno gadgetry that seems to infect the Blackberry carrying, Windows using, 'Androids' amongst us that are on the 'Matrix!'

The fact that Apple's stock is 10x that of Microsoft does not tell us anything. Stock prices can be high and market cap low, or vice versa.

The only question is how the stock price looks relative to earnings (or more precisely, expected free cash flow), and what it tells us about the market's perception of a company's growth prospects.

When all those are combined, it would seem that Apple is, indeed, viewed as a clearly superior company by the stock market.

The bottom line is that five years ago today MSFT was selling at $26 per share - same as today. APPL was $48 per share and $258 today - don't care who's on top market cap wise (but guess who's ahead now). If you were an investor, where would you rather be?

In other news, fire is hot. Why is this news? Microsoft is and has been clueless for a long time. They're just shocked that the public finally found out that the emperor has no clothes. They figured they would ride the "Start me up" wave of good times till at least 2015. That's why Gates and a lot of senior people left. They figured there's no way Ballmer could blow such a huge lead on the competition. They figured Steve Jobs was suppressed after Macworld in 97 when Gates and the media made it sound like they were saving Apple. They figured that the DOJ wouldn't have much ammo if they can prop up a competitor.

What's sad is that with all that money, time and talent, they never got the reason why Apple products were so much better than theirs. EIther that or they just didn't care and figured the public didn't either. I hate how some people think Apple's products are just for showing off. There are more and more people who own Apple stuff for the wrong reason and I think that Apple dumbed down the OS to accommodate them. Meanwhile Ballmer is smiling while they are laying the Microsoft coffin to rest.

It's a good thing Ballmer wasn't a Roman or else that empire would have ended much sooner.

Perhaps the ironic thing is that the .NET 4 Touch SDK is actually pretty decent, as is the C# language compared to Objective-C. Combine that with some rather nice database, connectivity, and kernel technology and there's really no technical reason why Microsoft SHOULDN'T be able to make a kick-ass touch device. What they appear to be utterly incompetent at is using technology to build an actual solution to consumer needs and integrating well into a consumer's life. They still seem driven by the feature checklist and battling their competitors rather than just building good stuff for people.

Yes, but Ballmer wants Windows 7 on a Tablet, not their mobile OS. Windows 7 means having tablets with basically the specs of (at minimum) a cheap underpowered netbook running an OS designed for desktops with a keyboard and two-button mouse. If you want a thin & light tablet with long battery life & superior usability, this isn't the magic formula. In fact, this is a recipe for the exact opposite. Remember Project Origami? Microsoft has already tried this. All it does is make users wish they had a more powerful laptop with a real keyboard. And ironically, since the price bottom fell out of the PC laptop market, it's probably a better value to buy a decent laptop instead of a crippled Windows 7 tablet.

The bottom line is that five years ago today MSFT was selling at $26 per share - same as today. APPL was $48 per share and $258 today - don't care who's on top market cap wise (but guess who's ahead now). If you were an investor, where would you rather be?

market price is nothing. Market trend is everything. What's significant is that MSFT is now where it was five years ago (and half of ten years ago). AAPL is now about five time its five-years-ago price.

A wireless Brother all-in-one printer/Fax/scanner/copier the odd time I want to print something on a dead tree...usually about once a week. And that's it. Oh, an AppleTV to listen to music while viewing photos on my flat screen TV.

I consider myself an Apple fanboi, but I've given my old iPods to either my daughter or niece. I sell my old software/hardware on craigslist. And sell my iPhones for the price I paid ATT for them and it's a 'wash' to get the latest and greatest iPhone.

Love my AppleTV - I never use it for music or photos, though.

I can't seem to part with my iPods. The nano and shuffle are my gym companions, the Touch is mandatory and required for clinicals, and the Classics are storage devices.

I can't seem to part with my iPods. The nano and shuffle are my gym companions, the Touch is mandatory and required for clinicals, and the Classics are storage devices.

When I have kids, I'll probably pass them on, though.

Good to know...my daughter is in med school and only uses her MacBookPro 13" and her iPhone. She does, however, want an iPad, too. A little bit of overlap to be sure, but very, very 'mobile!'

Yep, I miss my nano with the nike + on my arm for my runs and the gym. But, although the iPhone is a little bigger, I like that I don't have to put the 'connector' on the iPhone, like I did on the Nano...

Plus, like I said, hate the extra cables, charging, updates, etc.

Enjoyed your feedback!

Best...

You mentioned 'kids.' My daughter is the best thing I ever did...and she was easier than making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I mean that in the most lighthearted and complimentary way. She is the best daughter a guy could ever have! Best of luck to you!

PS. AppleTV...stream your photos of you and your friends over to your flat screen TV using the 'Ken Burns' effect...connect to a light Jazz internet radio station and it's as good as an aqaurium...My friends love to see photos of themselves. Just a suggestion. I think this is worth the price of admission to AppleTV in of itself!

Conversely... as the rather content owner/user of an Apple iPad 64/WiFi+3g, I can honestly say that it's really just an enlarged, overpriced iPod Touch lacking the convenience of being pocketable.

You're post is somewhat contradictory, if the iPad is nothing more than "overpriced" iPod touch then why keep it? It's just an enlarged iPod touch, you could have returned it you know? You sound rather disappointed and unhappy in your purchase, why not only buy the top of the line, but also keep something that seems to be a waste of your money? You sound a little like the iPhone 4 complainers, but won't return it for a full refund.

Quote:

Originally Posted by christopher126

Here is a very thoughtful article on Balmer/MS from today's WSJ...

It's rather short as far as WSJ articles go (good news for some on this board), very informative and I would really recommend it.

Plus, the 'monkey boy' insults are somewhat sophomoric and very tiresome!

Correct me if i am wrong, but you say the 'monkey boy' comments are sophomore, yes? Yet, it reads like you are subliminally insulting some of the readers here by suggesting they can only digest short news articles?! As if to say some readers here have short attention spans or are not intelligent or patient enough to read a long article. Am I wrong in this or are you simply guilty of the same sophomoric comments just done in a passive-aggressive way? I am not being a smart-ass, but that is how I read your comment.

You're post is somewhat contradictory, if the iPad is nothing more than "overpriced" iPod touch then why do keep it? It's just an enlarged iPod touch, you could have returned it you know? You sound rather disappointed and unhappy in your purchase, why not only buy the top of the line, but also keep something seems to be a waste?

Everything in this world is a 'compromise' of sorts, and when it comes to the iPad, the ability to have all of my ZINIO subscriptions (I've been using the service since I purchased my first tablet PC, the Hp/Compaq TC, in 2003) readily available at any given moment on a device this convenient, and with such outstanding battery autonomy, more than justifies its presence in my (admittedly diverse) electronics arsenal.

As for my selecting the 'the top of the line' version, it's always my policy to buy nothing but the absolute most well-equiped version available of any and everything I purchase, that way there's never any regret as to what I could have bought.

Ha! Take that Steve Ballmer.
I lost interest in Netbooks when manufacturers starting using Windows. Had they stayed on the Linux path, I would have one already. Instead two years later, I have an iPad now.

Exactly! PC OEMs were foolish to let M$ trick them into bungling Windoze again. I too was *this* close to buying a netbook, but at the moment Lenovo released the model with the exact feature set I wanted, it was released with Winblows only instead of Linux. So I said 'sorry, no thanks.'

I've been doing without an ultra-portable device for over a year now because of this, and I'm happy to report that my $ will be going to a new iPad next month.

I guess in a way I should thank M$ for screwing OEMs again, cause now I'll be buying a cool iPad, when I would have already spent the money on a so-so tiny laptop.

Exactly! PC OEMs were foolish to let M$ trick them into bungling Windoze again. I too was *this* close to buying a netbook, but at the moment Lenovo released the model with the exact feature set I wanted, it was released with Winblows only instead of Linux. So I said 'sorry, no thanks.'

I've been doing without an ultra-portable device for over a year now because of this, and I'm happy to report that my $ will be going to a new iPad next month.

I guess in a way I should thank M$ for screwing OEMs again, cause now I'll be buying a cool iPad, when I would have already spent the money on a so-so tiny laptop.

Hmmm...

Are you unaware that LINUX (depending on the distribution) can be installed on virtually any computer?

I'd reason that if anyone is even drawn to something as 'open sourced' as LINUX, they'll find Apple's iPad pretty unbearable.

The bottom line is that five years ago today MSFT was selling at $26 per share - same as today. APPL was $48 per share and $258 today - don't care who's on top market cap wise (but guess who's ahead now). If you were an investor, where would you rather be?

5 years ago the obvious answer would be Apple, but today... I'm not so sure. If I was playing with money from someone else I'd probably try to ride the Apple wave and get off at the right time... if I were investing my own money between Apple and Microsoft... I'd probably choose the bank.

The phenomenal rise in Apple's stock price is tied to their ability to keep creating growth markets. The iPod and iPhone have both lost the momentum they had and the iPad will only carry them for another 1 or 2 years. After that they need to create another market similar to the iPod/iPhone/iPad in order to maintain the same stock growth.

Correct me if i am wrong, but you say the 'monkey boy' comments are sophomore, yes? Yet, it reads like you are subliminally insulting some of the readers here by suggesting they can only digest short news articles?! As if to say some readers here have short attention spans or are not intelligent or patient enough to read a long article. Am I wrong in this or are you simply guilty of the same sophomoric comments just done in a passive-aggressive way? I am not being a smart-ass, but that is how I read your comment.

Not to be too dismissive but it's called 'prose!' Which is to say, your comments of my comments are as similar as 'two dissimilar thingies in a pod!' Any effrontery was directed at the yobbos calling other people names and certainly not to someone as erudite as you!

Are you unaware that LINUX (depending on the distribution) can be installed on virtually any computer?

I'd reason that if anyone is even drawn to something as 'open sourced' as LINUX, they'll find Apple's iPad pretty unbearable.

Who Knows...

Yes, I do know that. But, it would mean a portion (however small it may be) of my money would be going to M$ if I bought a netbook now. That's unaccepable to me. But that's not all. OEMs had incentive to come up with cool new ideas and apps for Linux on the desktop, but now that progress has stopped due to the Windoze takeover.

Linux still progresses, but if it had been allowed to prosper on netbooks, the market for Linux based software could have exploded. Let's hope this works with tablets and phones w/Android. I don't think M$ will be able to swoop in this time and take over the market where Android powers the devices.

Finally, the fact that Winblows is default on netbooks now also means that I have to go through the effort (again, however small) to rip the bad OS off the machine and install my Linux distro... More wasted time on my end... I can handle that process, but what about the average consumer? "Lin-whaaat? Distro-huh? What's an .iso?